


if you're the rock, i'm the ricochet

by gilligankane



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-09 23:03:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20517896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: This is how she will remember Kimberly Hart.Flying.





	if you're the rock, i'm the ricochet

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at Trimberly, and probably my last. But it was fun to write, and I'm glad I did.

This is how she will remember Kimberly Hart.

Sailing over the side of a cliff into a pool of water below them, a smile on her face. 

Leaning out of a car window with the wind in her hair. 

Standing on the top of a bus, arms stretched wide.

High above her in her pink Zord, doing barrel rolls just for fun.

_ Flying _ .

(Falling.)

-

Trini falls in the middle of the summer. 

Sometimes she thinks that she was always falling. Has been from the moment Kim grabbed her by the straps of her backpack, pulling her off the side of a cliff. It feels like an endless drop, her stomach always in her throat. The ground seems so far away. Always out of reach. 

Trini has never been afraid of falling. 

She knows it’s the landing that kills you. 

-

“Do you think the stars can see us?”

Trini turns her head. Wet grass sticks to her cheeks but she doesn’t care. Kim is laying next to her, head tipped back. They’re star-gazing, Kim said.  _ Sometimes I feel so small.  _

They drove to the edge of Angel Grove, to a spot with wide, flat stretches of grass. Kim had pulled Trini out of the car, her hand cool against Trini’s warm one. If she minded, she didn’t say. She just pulled and pulled the way she always pulls Trini - ignoring the resistance that melts into acceptance quicker than Trini will ever admit to anyone. 

Sometimes I feel so small, Kim said. 

“Maybe,” Trini says. 

Because maybe they can and maybe can’t. Maybe they don’t want to. Trini knows the feeling. Some days she avoids the mirror like she avoids her mom. Slinks around corners and keeps her head down. 

“I wonder what they think of us,” Kim says. She’s still looking up at the sky. 

“They probably think we’re idiots.” Trini makes a face. “At least, they think Zack is an idiot.”

“But he’s our idiot,” Kim sighs, smiling. Her hand shifts in the grass, some blades brushing against Trini. “They’re ours.”

“We’re theirs,” Trini corrects. “Angel Grove’s too. We belong to them now.”

Kim finally rolls, propping her head up on her hand. Trini looks back up at the sky. Her heart is falling in her chest now, sinking into her stomach. 

“We belong to each other,” Kim agrees. “I belong to you.”

Trini forces down the bubbling hope in her chest. Grinds her back teeth together. “I swear to God,” she starts. “If you start singing Taylor Swift at me…”

“You’ll what?” Kim laughs and it sounds like Trini’s favorite song. “Glare me to death?”

Trini sits up, her back aching from laying down. The ache won’t last long; it never does anymore. Pain comes and goes and what is left is the understanding that she  _ does _ belong. To Angel Grove. To this destiny they’ve inherited. To three boys who would - who have - lay down their life for hers. To Kim. 

She belongs most of all to Kimberly Hart. 

“I’ve never belonged to something before,” she admits. Kim knows. Kim knows almost all of her secrets. The only one she doesn’t know is the one Trini keeps locked inside of her, even as it pushes against the line of her mouth, dying to be spoken. 

It’s been there since forever, if she’s being honest. She isn’t always. Not to herself. But Kim has a way of sneaking up on her. Of pulling her off the edges of cliffs and getting her to talk and pushing Trini out of the shadows and into the starlight, even when she doesn’t want to. 

She never wants to. 

But she always wants Kim. 

“Awh,” Kim breathes. “You love us.”

_ I love you _ .

“Shut up,” she mumbles. She lets Kim lean into her. Ignores the steady thrum of her pulse coursing through her. Ignores the way her heart skips two beats before it resets. Ignores the burning skin where Kim’s hand curls around her arm. 

Each time, she falls a little more. A gradual fall, maybe. Inch by inch by inch. It’s been like this since the start. She’s slipping and sliding and the worst part is that she’s not trying to stop herself. 

She’s stopped trying to stop herself. 

Kim tugs at her arm until they’re laying back in the grass again. Her hand stays there, tangled in the sleeve of Trini’s yellow shirt. The afternoon rain still clings to it and her jeans are damp against the back of her thighs. 

“I want to stay here forever,” Kim whispers.

The words feel too heavy in her mouth, but she says them anyway. “I do too.”

“With you.”

And maybe Kim doesn’t know what she’s saying. Maybe she doesn’t know how the words stick to the inside of her ribs. Maybe she doesn’t know that Trini takes them out at night in the room that doesn’t feel like her own and she stares at them until they feel real. Maybe Kim doesn’t know that they put air into her lungs when she feels like she can’t breathe. 

Maybe she does.

It almost makes it worse. 

-

Trini slams through another putty simulation. She throws too much of her weight behind her punch and she stumbles as it crumbles under her. Hands catch her around the waist, holding her upright. 

Kim’s hands. 

She staggers in them for a minute before her feet steady. Kim is still close, her forearms against Trini’s heaving rib cage. She still can’t catch her breath. Kim is too close. Kim is right there. Kim is speaking to her. 

“What?”

Kim lifts an eyebrow slowly. “I said, are you okay?”

“She didn’t hit her head,” Billy says, hovering. “But she did last week and concussion symptoms can have a carryover effect that-“

“I’m good,” she pants. Billy stops suddenly. “Just a little winded.”

“We can call it a day,” Jason offers. “I have to go to dinner with my dad tonight, so.”

Zack claps a large hand down on his shoulder. “Forced bonding time. Speaking of.” He turns towards Trini. “We’re overdue, crazy girl.”

Trini is already shaking her head. Her hair catches on the soft cotton of Kim’s tank top. She’s still so close. Close enough for Trini to make too many mistakes. 

“Nope. Weekly drug test is tonight.” She wants to peel out of her skin. Get away from Kim.

“And I’m already going with her,” Kim sings. She flashes Zack a wide grin. “She likes me better.”

Zack groans. “It’s like you’re hijacking my best friend.” He pouts at Trini. “Second place sucks.”

Kim preens, her hair swinging into Trini’s face, dragging across her lip. Trini jerks back, her body twitching in Kim’s hold. Kim pauses. Her hands flex at Trini’s waist and she lets go, stepping back. 

“Get used to it,” Kim finishes. She fistbumps Billy and flicks the top of Jason’s ear. “I’m her favorite.”

_ You’re my favorite. _

But Zack  _ is _ her best friend. And he knows the same things Kim does. He knows more than Kim. He knows about Kim. So he gives in and rolls his eyes and lets his shoulders slope in defeat. He shoves lightly at Kim as she passes him, but it barely moves her across the dirt floor. 

“You. Me. Krispy Kreme. Tomorrow.” He punctuates each word with a finger gun aimed in her direction. 

Kim pouts. “I thought that was our place.”

Trini feels stuck between a rock and a hard place. Well, she’s stuck between a rock and Kim and it feels a lot like the same thing. 

“You’re right, Princess.”

Zack sighs again. “Is nothing sacred to our friendship?”

Trini scoffs at him. “We’ll always have the train car.”

Zack slaps a hand over his chest. “She does love me.”

She does love them. She loves Zack and his goofiness and the way he makes her feel big. She loves Jason and his unwavering faith in her. She loves Billy and his optimism. 

She loves Kim and her  _ everything _ .

Kim’s hand slips into hers. She ignores the way Zack’s eyes drift towards it. 

“We’re going to be late for dinner.” Kim tugs gently. “We have to stop at my house first, though. I need to get a shirt that covers this.” She nods her head at the bruise blooming across her shoulder. “Don’t want to give your mom a reason to stop liking me.”

“She’ll always like you,” Trini says. Her voice sound hoarse. Unused. “She thinks you’re the reason I stopped wearing hats all the time.”

Kim  _ is  _ the reason she’s tucked most of her beanies away. She likes to braid and undo and rebraid Trini’s hair. It’s easier this way, she told Trini. I just learned how to do a fishtail braid. Let me try. 

Trini sits there through it. Feels Kim’s nails scratching against her spine. Reminds herself.  _ Breathe _ . 

“Later haters,” Kim calls over her shoulder. “And Billy.”

Billy grins widely, stretching on the tips of his toes to wave goodbye. 

Kim holds her hand through the spaceship and through the water and doesn’t let go until they’re topside, bobbing in the small pool like ice in a glass. They walk back to Kim’s car and Trini tucks her hands into her pockets. They feel weightless with Kim holding them down. 

She thought she’d feel heavy. That carrying around this weight, this love, would make each step feel like she had concrete tied to her shoes. She thought she would feel like she was sinking. But without Kim, she’s weightless. Floating in the vastness. Completely lost to the world around her. 

Kim holds her down. Kim keeps her  _ here _ . 

Kim reaches for her hand over the gearshift, pushing Trini’s fingers away as she starts to pick at her thumb. Kim smiles at her. Pushes her lips out in a pout. Let’s go of the wheel to turn the radio up with her other hand. 

She doesn’t let go of Trini’s hand until she pulls into Trini’s driveway. 

Something inside of her hums. 

She thinks it’s the way Kim laughs. How it settles in her stomach like warm soup on a cool fall day. 

She never stops to think it might be the coin in her pocket.

-

Trini wonders if this fall has an end to it. She wonders if this is what Alice felt like, everything stretching into something bigger. Everything a black, endless hole with no knowledge of what lies in wait at the end of it. 

Except that she knows what waits at the end. Destruction. Heartbreak. A darkness she’s not sure she’ll find her way out of. 

“What’re you thinking about?” Kim whispers. 

They’re shoulder to shoulder in Kim’s bed. The streetlight outside of the window casts a shadow across the bed that makes Trini’s heart hammer in her chest. If Trini wakes up too suddenly, too desperate for air in her lungs, she sees a staff and long tendrils of hair and flashes of gold. She sees Rita and she feels small again. Forgotten. Alone. 

Kim knows. She always knows. She wakes up just as quickly. She pulls Trini into her side and runs her hands through Trini’s hair and whispers into Trini’s ear.

I’m here. You’re safe, Kim says. She recites Snapple Facts. She lists the elements on the periodic table. She reads the bad pickup lines Zack keeps dropping in their group chat. She says just enough to pull Trini back from the crumbling edge. She is enough. 

Trini shrugs, her shoulder against Kim’s. “Donuts,” she decides on. “My dad watched that ‘How It’s Made’ show last night. Assembly lines are weird.”

Kim snorts. “ _ That’s  _ what’s keeping you up?”

Trini turns over. Tucks her hands under her chin. “Fine. What’re  _ you _ thinking about?”

“Leaving,” Kim exhales. She turns, one arm under her head. “Going…  _ anywhere _ .”

The hum is back. Low in her stomach. Kim’s eyes flash in the streetlight.

“Where would you go?”

“We,” Kim corrects quickly. “You’re coming with.”

Trini’s does clench. “Where are  _ we _ going?” she asks. 

_ I’ll follow you anywhere. _

Kim sighs wistfully. “Anywhere. Fuji. Alaska. China. Where do you want to go?”

Trini thinks about it. Thinks about the places she thought she’d always visit. The places she can never go now. Bitterness starts to slip along her spine and she curls in, looking away from Kim. “It doesn’t matter, does it? We can’t actually go anywhere.”

Kim reaches out with one hand. She pulls at the hem of Trini’s shirt. Something she keeps at Kim for nights like this. “Hey,” she says softly. “We can still dream, can’t we?”

Trini snorts. “But why? What’s the point?”

Kim pushes in so close that her nose brushes Trini’s forehead. “If we don’t have dreams…” She swallows and Trini watches her throat bob with unsaid words. “What do we have, then?”

_ Nothing _ . 

“Reality,” she says. “And the reality is, Princess, that we’re not going anywhere.”

Kim’s forehead presses down against her own. Whispers, “At least we’re going nowhere together.”

Kim kisses her and Trini falls and falls and falls. 

-

Her coin rattles on her nightstand. Trini tries to ignore it. Tries to push it to the back of her mind. But it hums loudly over the things in her head and she finally turns over in bed, grabbing it. 

It settles in her hand and Trini feels something vibrate through her chest. 

Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s not. 

But now that she’s holding it, she can think.

About Kim. 

About kissing. 

About kissing Kim in Kim’s bed and kissing Kim in Kim’s car and kissing Kim in the second floor bathroom. In the corner of the ship that’s just  _ theirs _ . In the shadows of the shallow pool. In Trini’s kitchen with her parents and the boys in the living room.

About kissing Kim  _ everywhere _ . 

If Trini thought she was falling before - if she thought she fell at the start of the summer - then she doesn’t know what this is. Maybe this is a swan dive. Maybe a free fall. Maybe this is Trini closing her eyes and jumping out of a plane without a chute or a backup plan. 

“This is gross,” Kim whispers. She swings a leg up and over the windowsill, careful to avoid the dirty laundry piling up beneath it. “When are you going to wash these?”

Trini looks away, embarrassed. “When are you going to start using the front door?”

“Uh, never?” Kim slides into the room. “Windows are more romantic. Romeo called to Juliet through a window, I think.”

Trini puts her coin back on her nightstand and sits up. Pushes the comforter away. Tucks her legs under her body. “They died, you know.”

Kim shrugs a shoulder carelessly. “I must have missed that part.” She pauses at the foot of Trini’s bed before she toes her shoes off, kicking them away into the darkness. 

Trini can see the hesitation in her eyes. She feels it in her stomach, too. It churns over and over. There’s something comforting about her not being alone. About Kim feeling this way too. 

“Can I?”

“Yeah.” She says it too quickly. Too earnestly. 

But Kim doesn’t seem to care. She kneels on one leg, hovering over the bed. Trini exhales a rush of courage that still catches her off guard and reaches forward. Winds her hand into the front of Kim’s shirt. Pulls. 

Kim falls, one hand on the headboard and the other at Trini’s shoulder, Trini’s hand at her waist. They flex and curl in the belt loops of her jeans. 

_ Don’t let go. _

“Hi,” Kim whispers. She lifts a hand and brushes some of Trini’s hair back off her face. 

“Hey.”

“Is this-“

“Yeah.” Trini winces. Too quick again. 

Kim smiles and it makes Trini’s hands tremble. She’s falling again, slipping and sliding and she doesn’t care. Kim’s breath ghosts over the planes of her cheeks. She doesn’t care. Kim’s palm burns hot through her shirt. She doesn’t care. Kim leans in and-

She read about fireworks. About passion. About how this feeling can be a raging inferno. And yeah, she needs to stop using her mom’s bathroom reading as source material. But the romance novels never write about what it’s like to kiss Kimberly Hart. 

Kim shifts above her. Her mouth is warm and Jolly Rancher-sticky. The pink ones, probably. And she’s careful, kissing slow and firm until Trini’s mind goes comfortably blank.

Kissing Kimberly Hart feels like she’s holding something fragile. It feels like she has her hands on something that doesn’t belong to her. Something she can break as easily as she can breathe. 

It feels she’s falling, and for once? She’s not afraid to land. 

-

Kim pulls her hand across the bed. Her fingers trace over the lines of her palm and she stops at the small bundle of nerves over her wrist. Kim hums. 

Trini lifts her head. Opens one eye. “What’re you doing?”

“Looking at your future.” Kim drags a nail down one of the lines. 

It tickles. “And?”

Kim continues to hum softly, matching Trini’s coin in her pocket. “Your lifeline is looking a little short.”

The joke falls flat in the space between them. Trini winces but Kim pulls, keeping her close. 

“Your love life, though…” Kim looks up, her bottom lip caught in her teeth. “Well, that looks promising.”

Trini feels her face burning. “Does it?”

Kim hums again and nods. “I’m seeing…  _ pink _ in your future.”

Trini laughs. It’s louder than she expects it to be. Kim smiles anyway. Comes closer. Shifts on her elbows until she’s resting her chin on Trini’s shoulder, hands tangled between them. 

_ I love you _ . 

Kim comes closer and Trini feels the earth move. It shifts and shakes beneath her, unsettling her from the tenuous place she’s standing on. She’s tumbling head over feet, moving too quickly. She wants to turn. Run. Never look back. But Kim is there. Matching her step for step. Jumping when she jumps.

(Falling when she falls. 

Trini  _ hopes _ .)

“So… pink?” The words stick to the back of Trini’s teeth.

Kim nods. Her chin brushes Trini’s shoulder. “Pink.”

Trini squeezes Kim’s hand in her own. “I like pink.”

“I like you,” Kim breathes. 

And it’s there. This thing they haven’t talked about. There’s kissing and there’s sneaking into bedrooms late at night and afternoons in the back of Kim’s car with the windows down and sneaking out of fourth period and holding hands under the lab tables in bio. 

But there’s still this thing. This voice in her head that says she’s falling alone and there’s no one jumping down to meet her. This voice that says Kim thinks this is fun. That she’s doing this to pass the time. And it’s loud and she can’t always fight it off late at night when Kim is slipping out the window she came in from. 

But Kim whispers  _ I like you _ and the voice stops. Goes quiet. Goes silent. 

“You do?”

Her voice shakes. Her hands shake. She knows Kim can hear it. Feel it. But she shakes and she waits and Kim just reaches out to her. Smooths two fingers over Trini’s cheek. Leans forward. 

Whispers. “Duh.”

Trini bends and snaps, lifting the last few inches between them and kissing Kim. She slides her hand along Kim’s neck, fingertips curling around Kim’s jaw. She’s done this a thousand times, and if she does it a thousand more, she’s still never feel like she’s done this enough. Kim sighs into her mouth, her tongue wet against Trini’s lip. There’s hand at her shoulder, then her neck. It slides into her hair and tugs gently, pulling Trini closer. 

Kin presses closer, her hips against Trini’s hips. “You like me,” she says. Questions. 

Trini nods, stealing kisses with each dip of her head. “I do.”

Of course she does. Of course she  _ has _ . But Kim doesn’t know that. Kim might never know that. Trini won’t say it. Won’t even think it when Kim’s hand is sliding out of her hair to the hollow of her throat. Won’t think about it when Kim kisses like  _ this _ . Like she  _ knows _ . 

She doesn’t know. Trini is sure she doesn’t know.

So Kim’s hand drifts lower and lower and Trini falls with it. 

-

She grins as Kim slips out of the window. Listens to the soft  _ thud  _ of Kim’s feet on the ground. She lays back on her bed. Rest her head on her hands. Breathes.

Kim touched her tonight. Slid her hands up under the hem of Trini’s shirt and around her back. Up to the clasp of Trini’s bra. Kim touched her and she touched Kim and her hands still shake a little. Still a little clammy. Kim touched her and Trini tumbled over the edge of this thing - this  _ relationship _ . 

Relationship. They’re in a relationship.

Kim breathed the word  _ girlfriend _ into her mouth earlier. Pressed it into her neck. Traced it over the curve of her ribcage.

She has a girlfriend.  _ Kim _ is her girlfriend.

Her coin thrums on her nightstand. It hums and it rattles and it’s almost like Trini’s heart is in time with her coin. Like it’s matching its beat. Like it’s falling and falling.

Trini holds onto her coin and tries to find the ground again. 

Because, Kim is her girlfriend. 

Her  _ girlfriend _ . 

But it’s a secret. For now.

Trini doesn’t mind. She doesn’t. She wants to keep falling where no one can see her.

Then, if it crashes and burns then maybe the landing won’t kill her. Just maim her. 

Or something.

-

Something has to be wrong with her coin.

It’s not just humming now. It’s vibrating. Hard enough to shake her alarm clock. Loud enough to keep her up at night. It rattles out of rhythm with her heartbeat now. The tempo is wrong. 

She stares at the ceiling and wonders what it means.

Before, it was pleasant. It sang in her veins. Now it pulses. Aches. She squeezes it between her hands, presses it against her thighs but nothing changes.

It burns too.. Almost too hot to touch, sometimes. Too hot to hold. 

She wonders what it means. This thing with Kim is heating up, so, maybe? Or it’s that the secret they’re keeping is slowly eating away at them? She wants to ask Kim if she feels it too. Does she hear it during English when the teacher drones on and on? Does she feel it during lunch when her foot drifts up and down Trini’s leg? Does it burn a hole through her bio homework?

She doesn’t ask. 

She wraps it in a sock and carries it in her backpack instead of her pockets. Hides it under her mattress when she sleeps. Wonders if Kim can feel it when she comes over late at night. 

Does she feel the  _ thump, thump, thump _ of it below their bodies as they kiss and kiss and kiss?

Something has to be wrong with it, but Trini doesn’t ask.

She just holds it tightly for now. Keeps it close. 

Hold Kim even closer.

-

“Quiet,” Kim pants. She’s pushing Trini into the mattress, hair wild.

Trini’s hand still at Kim’s hips, palms flat. She tries to fine-tune her hearing but there’s nothing. Nothing but Kim gasping softly and the buzzing of her coin wrapped in a sock tucked in her dresser.

Kim shifts above her, hips rolling into hers. Trini fights the noise bubbling in her throat. Pushes it back down. She scratches at the soft skin beneath her hands. Bites her lip when Kim shifts away and smiles down at her.

“What’re you-”

Kim puts a finger to her mouth and shakes her head. Trini lets it stay there. Lets it press into her lips. She focuses on Kim instead. Watches her hair swing back and forth as she leans further towards the doors. Slides her hands over Kim’s sides and traces lines into her stomach.  _ Trini. Trini is the best. Trini is _ -

“Okay.” Kim leans back over her, shifts her hips back until they’re pressing into Trini’s thighs. “Okay.”

Trini meets her halfway. She kisses Kim like she’s drowning. Like she’s never known air before. Kim threads her fingers into her hair and pulls her up from the dark. Stops her from falling. Keeps her steady and in one place and  _ whole _ . 

There are fingernails behind her waistband and Kim sits back just enough for Trini to lean forward. Just enough to chase. To lift up off Kim’s bed and follow her wherever Kim is going.

And Kim is going  _ there _ . A hand against her hipbone. A finger dipping below her jeans. A mouth hot against her neck, whispering up to her ear. A slow roll of pressure against her hips. Kim fumbles with the button on her jeans. Misses it twice before it catches and releases. 

“Is this-”

“ _ Yeah _ .” Trini clears her throat clumsily. Palms Kim’s sides. Lifts her chin in the air like she knows what she’s doing. Tries again. “Yeah.”

And then, for the first time in too long, she’s  _ climbing _ . She goes higher. Soars. Her chest aches and her body burns and this is what it feels like to fly too close to the sun, she’s sure of it.

And then.

Then she’s falling and Kim is there. 

Holding her. 

Kissing her. 

(Falling with her.

God, Trini  _ hopes _ .)

-

Zack gives her a seven of spades, glaring over his hand.

She ignores him. “Got any eights?”

“Go fish.”

Trini picks up a card. Nothing she can use.

“Got any… tens?” She hands him a ten of clubs. He pokes his tongue out of his mouth, thinking. “Got any… news on you and the Pink Ranger?”

Trini throws a card at his shoulder. It bounces off him and ricochets back towards her. He grins.

“No.” 

“But Trini-”

“ _ No _ .”

Zack sighs. Puts his cards down. He tries for that face he makes when he wants to be serious, but he just looks constipated. She tells him that. “She likes you.”

_ I know she does _ .

“And?”

He reaches out and takes her cards from her hands. “You like her.”

_ I know I do _ .

“So?”

Zack groans and throws himself on the floor of her bedroom. Drapes a hand dramatically over his face. She waits eight seconds before he peeks out from behind his fingers, sighing again when she doesn’t seem to care. “Triniiii.”

She kicks weakly at his side. “Knock it off.”

Her coin starts to rattle in her nightstand. She can feel it. It pulses hard under her skin. She looks up sharply. Zack is still flopped backwards with his hand over his face. She wonders if he feels it too. Or if it’s just her.

“I’m just saying,” Zack finally says. His voice is soft. The one he uses with his mom. His serious, this  _ matters _ voice. “Go for it, you know? We only live once and all that shit.”

“And all that shit,” she echoes.

Zack rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

She does. But she’s already living. And she can’t tell. No, she  _ won’t _ . She wants to keep it close, still. She wants to hold it tight. She wants it to be  _ her _ and she wants it to be  _ Kim’s _ . Theirs.

Her coin keeps shaking. She knows it’s in her drawer but it feels closer. Like she can feel it trembling in her hand. Maybe it is the secret they’re keeping. Maybe it’s tied to their coins.

When Zack leaves, she takes it out of her dresser. Loosens it from the sock she stored it in. It falls into her hand and holds it in the center of her palm. The yellow pulses bright, lighting up her room. 

It nearly matches her heart now. 

_ Thud _ , yellow. 

_ Thud _ , yellow. 

_ Thud _ ,  _ thud _ ,  _ thud _ . 

She shoves the coin under the mattress and picks up her phone. Tries to ignore that Kim’s name fills her recent calls list.

“Hey, it’s me.” She looks around the room. She can see a faint yellow light under her disheveled comforter. “Want to come over?”

-

Things fall apart quickly. Too quickly. Trini can barely catch her breath. 

It doesn’t help that Kim has her trapped against the cool metal side of the ship. It doesn’t help that Kim’s hands feel like they’re everywhere. It doesn’t help that Kim is whispering in her ear as her lips whisper down Trini’s jaw. 

“Oh!”

Billy backs up suddenly, bumping into Jason. Jason stumbles back into Zack. They crash into each other like a closing accordion. Like a van slammed by a train in a closed-down mine. 

“I  _ knew it _ .” Zack grins ear to ear, flashing Trini a thumbs up. “Go you.”

Kim slowly peels herself away and Trini wants to peel away with her. Curl herself into Kim and slip away to a place where they’re alone. 

But Kim is hiding. Kim isn’t shying away. She slips her arm through Trini’s, her fingers sliding down Trini’s arm until they settle at the wild pulse in her wrist. 

“Go  _ me _ ,” Kim corrects. 

Billy claps his hands together, bouncing on the tips of his toes. “This is great! Jason, does this mean I get my money back?”

Trini’s heart stutters in her chest. “Your money?”

“I thought I’d win,” Zack admits. “Man, I’m out $20.” He points at her. “You owe me a whole pizza and I’m going to eat it all by myself.”

Jason has the decency to look down at his shoes, his face nearly as red as his shirt. 

It’s falling apart, but it’s not as bad as she thought it would be. Kim is still close. The boys are still there. The knot of fear in her chest - the one that comes and goes like Rita’s voice in her head - loosens slowly. Kim squeezes her hand and she breathes. 

Jason curses and digs into his pocket. He pulls out his coin and she can him hiss softly over the sound of it shaking in his hand. “We’ve got to do something about this.”

Kim pulls out her coin. It shines pink, neon against the shiny metal of the ship. Billy takes his out. It’s the same. Zack’s burns black. The ship glows around them. 

“This thing nearly burned a hole through my mom’s chess set.” Zack tosses it between his hands like a hot potato.

Billy holds his up. “My mom thought I was running the jackhammer again. Though, that would be impossible. Operating it inside a house without the proper considerations would be a risk.”

“So…” Trini frowns. “It wasn’t just me?”

Jason shakes his head. “No. I’ve felt it too.”

Trini thought it was just her. That it was this thing with Kim. She thought their secret was coursing through her into her coin. But it’s not. Each coin glows and shakes as one. As a unit. They’re a team and they belong to each other. 

They belong to these coins. 

“We should talk to Zordon,” Jason finally says.

And now Trini is afraid of her coin for a whole other reason. 

-

Zordon says something is coming. He doesn’t say what. He doesn’t say when. He doesn’t know. But it’s something and it’s coming and they have to be prepared. 

_ How do we prepare for something we know nothing about? _

She dreams about Rita for the first time in months. She dreams about drops of water on her face. Salt in the air. She feels long fingers scraping down her throat, digging in hard enough to make her bleed. 

Kim climbs through her window and Trini nearly puts her through the wall. 

“It’s okay.” Kim puts her hands up. Shows Trini the lines of her palms. Her hands are empty and her eyes are full of sympathy. “It’s just me.”

“Jesus  _ Christ, _ ” she hisses. She holds a hand to her neck. There’s faint lines left behind.  _ They’re caused by a woman with a coin _ , Zordon had said.  _ They may never go away. _ “Wear a bell.”

Kim’s lips pull in a soft smile. “I called. You didn’t pick up.”

“So you thought you’d ninja into my bedroom in the middle of the night?” She takes a step back. Sits down hard on the edge of the bed. 

Kim sits down slowly next to her. She picks up Trini’s hand. Turns it over. Traces a fingernail down in a long line from the tip of her finger to her wrist. “Why didn’t you tell me about your coin?”

Trini pulls her hand away. “Why didn’t you tell me about yours?

Kim’s cheeks flush pink. “I thought it was because of us.”

Trini knows. She felt the same. She didn’t say anything either. Didn’t want to upset the balance. 

Kim laughs softly. She falls back onto the bed and pulls Trini with her until they’re shoulder to shoulder staring up at the ceiling. 

“I should put stars up there.”

Kim turns her head to look at her. “Like, glow-in-the-dark ones?”

Trini nods. Like glow-in-the-dark constellations. Grus, maybe. The crane, for Kim. 

Maybe something for all of them. Taurus. Aries. Draco. It’s not perfect - it’s not a mastadon or a tyrannosaurus - but they’ll do. Trini will know what they mean and she’ll tell them.  _ I think of you all the time.  _

“We can go star-gazing and never leave your room.”

Trini turns her head. Kim is close. So close. Their nose brush. She licks her lips. “Is that what you want?”

She’s asking something else. Kim knows. Kim always knows. 

“I want to go everywhere with you,” Kim whispers. 

There’s still room left to fall. Trini wasn’t sure there was, but there is. It’s right here in between them. Her stomach drops out like she’s at the peak of a rollercoaster and there’s nowhere to go but down. 

She throws her hands up. Screams. Welcomes the rush. 

-

And then they know. 

And Trini knows; they’re all going to fall. 

She knows; they all won’t survive the landing. 

-

_ This is your destiny _ , Zordon has told them.  _ This is your fight _ .

But she doesn’t  _ want _ it to be her fight. She wants to go home and lay down under her glow-in-the-dark stars with her girlfriend - her  _ girlfriend _ \- and kiss until she feels like the whole world is spinning in a pink and yellow blur around her. She wants to sit on top of the rundown boxcar with Zack and see who can throw rocks the farthest. She wants to spend the afternoon in Billy’s workshop and try to learn about the chemical stability of different rocks. She wants to crowd the seat of Jason’s truck and flick fries into the air for him to catch in his mouth.

She wants to be seventeen. She wants her freedom back. 

They may belong to Angel Grove but she wants to belong to  _ herself _ . 

There’s a sea of putties stretched out in front of them. She can hardly see the streets they fill. The cars. The houses and their inhabitants. It’s just rows of putty after putty with no end in sight.

“They must be leftover from Rita,” Jason says. He stands next to her. Armor on and face pinched at the corners. 

“There’s so many of them,” Billy says in awe. 

Zack claps his hands together. Metal on metal. “What’re we waiting for?”

The putties shift and sway silently. 

“They’re not moving.” Kim is next to her chin. Shoulders almost brushing. Their hands swing and nearly touch. “What’re  _ they _ waiting for.”

Trini doesn’t know. “Maybe they can’t do anything without Rita?”

There was a time when she couldn’t do anything without Rita. Hovering in the background. Haunting her dreams. Now she breathes Kim in as she sleeps and Rita felt like a memory. 

Rita feels like she’s  _ back _ now, pushing her safety away. 

They’re sloppy. They’ve been training each day since they put Goldar in the ground and Rita into space. But it’s different when it’s putting Zack on his back. Different when she’s stopping to adjust Billy’s footwork. When she spending more time flirting with Kim. Mimicking Jason’s inspirational speeches.

They’re sloppy and the putties are stronger. Stronger than Trini remembers. Too strong. They strike and strike and Trini’s feet slide in the broken asphalt the city still hasn’t completely swept away. 

The wall of putties pushes them backwards. Jason breathes hard through the comms. Tells them to get to the mine. Get their Zords. It’s the only way, he says. 

So they turn and run. Dip and weave. She can see people in their houses, noses pressed against the window. Kim sprints next to her. The closer they get to the mine, the more the world rumbles. It’s their Zords, pushing through the sides of the mountains into the daylight. Kim’s zooms above them and then she’s gone from Trini’s side. 

She’s flying. 

Then falling. 

A putty grows tall, one stacked on top of the other until it’s high enough to swat Kim from the sky. The Zord nosedives. Nearly hits the ground before Kim pulls up and rockets into the air. 

The ground shakes beneath her feet and she knows their Zords are coming, but it’s not fast enough. Putties grow and grow and Kim dodges them with too much effort. Her turns aren’t sharp. Her Zord barrel-rolls. She spins too hard to one side and Trini feels her own stomach bottom out. 

She can’t wait. 

_ Kim _ can’t wait. 

_ Maybe if I take the first row out. Maybe if I stop them.  _

Maybe if she hadn’t kissed Kim. Held her hand. Whispered that she wanted to go anywhere -  _ everywhere _ \- with Kim. Maybe if she hadn’t done these things, she’s changed her mind. She’d hesitate. She’d stop and think  _ what would the old Trini do _ . 

The old Trini would run. The old Trini would tell the four kids in the mine that she’s not going anywhere with them.

But this is the new Trini. This is who she is now. 

Now, she’s a Power Ranger. And there’s more at stake than just her life.

“Cover me.”

Jason holds his breath for a beat. “Cover what?”

“Me. Cover me.”

The Zords are closer, but not close enough. Putties build and build and Kim’s rolls and dips aren’t going to be enough. 

Zack's voice is sharp in her ear. “Don’t do anything crazy.”

“Trini.” Kim cuts through the static. 

Trini cuts down a putty, shattering it into rocks and dust. “We need to stop the first wave. We can’t get through them.”

“No,” Jason says loudly. “We can hold them off.”

But another grows and it catches the tail of Kim’s pterodactyl, nearly knocking it off course. 

_ I love you _ , she thinks.  _ I’ve always loved you _ . 

And she’s never said it before. Never whispered the words. She’s thought them. In the quiet of the morning when Kim is asleep and drooling on her pillow. Late at night when they’re sharing a spot on the same log, flames licking into the sky. In biology when Kim draws hearts in the margins of her notes and writes her name on Trini’s thigh with her fingertips. When she breathes. 

Now she needs to say it. She needs to speak it into existence. Kim doesn’t need to say it back. 

Trini needs to know she said it. Just once.

“No.” Kim bangs a hand against the windshield of her Zord. “Don’t even think about it, Trini.”

Trini looks away. Looks again. Looks back at the putty. Looks at her future and knows. This is the right decision.

“ _ No _ .” Kim is shouting now, voice booming through Trini’s comm. 

Trini lowers her face shield. “I love you,” she says into the sky. 

It feels like too much to say. Not enough. Both at the same time. 

She doesn’t wait. She doesn’t hesitate. She ducks her head. Lifts her face shield into place. Barrels forward, shoulder first. The cliff is right there. She feels herself collide with the first row of putties, shattering them into pieces. She lets herself look up, just for a moment.

Kim is right above her. Screaming. Hammering a hand against her Zord. 

This is how she will remember Kimberly Hart.

And then she’s falling.

-

She gasps for air. Her face shield goes up and she’s gasping, trying to find even the smallest bubble of oxygen. Water rushes into her mouth and she freezes.

_ Rita on her ceiling. Rita holding her by the throat.  _

She sputters and kicks until she’s turned over, her back in the puddle she’s landed in.  _ You can drown in one inch of water _ , her mom told the summer she learned to swim. Water laps at her ears as her armor flickers and fades. It seeps in through her jeans and her flannel and her legs feel too heavy. Too heavy to lift. Too heavy to kick again and sit up. 

It sounds like she’s in an air tunnel. She can hear too much and not enough. Her fingers scrabble over her chest, trying to peel away what’s left of the arm. If she can move it. If she can just scrape it away. Maybe she can breathe.

_ Rita on her ceiling. Rita holding her by the throat. _

And then it’s not Rita. The hand is smaller. Warmer. Lighter on her skin.

The whisper in her ear fades and then it’s Zack, fingers scrabbling against her shield until it’s finally gone as he calls her name over and over. She shoves at him weakly. Her arms are too heavy. Exhaustion and water soaking through her flannel shirt. He doesn’t budge. He pulls her up and wraps his arms tighter around her chest.

Zack pants in her ear. “She just landed, you idiot. Her Zord lost a wing. You’re a stupid,  _ stupid _ idiot.”

She grabs at arm, fingers slipping. “I thought.”

“You thought what?” Zack shakes her a little. Her head lolls back and forth. “Thought you’d go and be a big hero? Newsflash, crazy girl. We’re  _ all _ heroes.” He squeezes her again. Gently, now. Rocks her back and forth. “Zordon is going to kill you.”

Trini spits up some water. “Was kinda hoping the putties would kill me first.”

“I’m next.”

Kim drops to a knee in front of her, armor snapping out of sight. She pushes her hair back out of her face. “Actually, I’m going to kill you first.  _ Then  _ Zordon can have his turn.”

Zack’s arms slide away. Trini catches herself on her hands, arms shaking with the effort. “Kim, I.”

“You.” Kim shakes her hair out. Water droplets dot the air before they land. Trini watches them run down Kim’s arms. Sink into her shirt. Water dribbles down Trini’s neck and pools at the hem of her shirt. “This isn’t some big action movie. You don’t need to go out dying a hero.”

Trini coughs. “Does that make you the love interest?”

Something in Kim’s face softens. “Only if you really do love me.”

Trini sits up a little more. Ignores the ache in her side and the way the sleeves of her flannel hang heavy at her sides. “Kim, I threw myself into a pile of putties for you.” She gives Kim a crooked smile.

“You threw yourself into a pile of putties for  _ us _ . Because we have each other. We belong to each other, right?” Kim’s hand shakes where it rests on Trini’s neck. “We belong to-”

Trini makes a show of sighing. “If you sing Pat Benatar at me right now…”

Kim’s forehead pulls together. “We belong,” she repeats. “To this town. We protect it. We protect each other.”

“I belong to you.”

She says it out loud and the words don’t sound foreign in her mouth like she thought they would. They don’t send Kim running like she thought they would. Kim leans closer. Rests her forehead against Trini’s and breathes in the same air Trini does. “I am going to sing Pat Benetar now.”

Zack does the guitar solo somewhere behind them. 

She knows the world is going to press in on them. Break this bubble they’ve created. She thinks of the field where she laid with Kim and watched the stars. She hoped. She hoped and she hoped and now she’s here. She’s soaked through and Kim is shaking and she thought of a hundred ways to say “I love you” that weren’t this.

It still feels perfect.

She knows; the world will press in on them. There’ll be more coming. More threats to this world they’ve built. This world they’ve protected. Something somewhere will threaten them. Their city. Their people. Each other. And they’ll face it head-on. They belong to this city. They belong to its people. They belong to each other. It feels less heavy now. 

Kim’s lips linger on her forehead. “I love you, too,” she mouths. 

Trini hoped.

_ God _ , she hoped.

Zack helps her head. Steadies her on her feet. The heavy seeps through her body and into her legs. Kim’s arms wind around her waist. 

Her coin hums softly in her pocket. Settled, now.

Kim holds her tightly. Pulls Trini in until they’re fused. At the hip and the shoulders and the toes. Kim takes a deep breath that Trini feels in her chest. Their feet slide at the edge of the water. Trini looks at the pool. Through the water to their home away from home away from home. 

“Ready?”

Trini nods and then.

Then they’re falling.


End file.
